Have you been to The Rock in the last week? If not, I guarantee it looks way different than your last visit. On Saturday we reinforced the guardrail on the backstretch and finished hanging the third row of guardrail on the existing posts. There is a small section that will need digging out before we can hang the last few pieces in turn 2. There was a bit of prep that had to happen first. Mike Fauci was there at 7:30am bracing up the guardrail that had tilted under the extreme wind conditions during the week. Mike Valencia and Shawn Freeland were there to assist as well. Thank you all. Mike Valencia single handedly moved all of the posts up onto the race surface to make room for the next round of fill. Thank you, Mike! Shawn Freeland, Tony Marianetti, Jerry McAllister and Rob VanDyne torched and cut the old bolts on the guardrail that we were going to hang. Thank you guys! The crew hanging the rails included: Rob VanDyne, Shawn Freeland, Tony Marianetti, Jerry McCallister, John Kreckman, Ricky Francis, Mike Fauci and Mike Valencia. These guys were there putting up the guardrail on one of the coldest days yet. I hung the panel on the pole for our main power. Mike F., Mike V., Irene Fink and Kaydon VanDyne were all there to lend a hand. We all took a much needed lunch break and enjoyed piping hot baked ziti, bread and butter, cookies and snickerdoodles courtesy of Paula McAllister. Thank you so much. It was just what we needed to keep going on a cold day!

Rob and I returned on Sunday and made some much needed upgrades to the garage. We now have new LED lighting in the interior garage area and a new LED security light outside mounted above the overhead door. The switches inside the tower to control these as well as the scales and its light have been reworked. No longer will we be using the breaker panel like light switches.

Jake Starr met the trucks from Farrell Landscaping at the track this morning to direct them as to where to dump the 10 loads of fill that we ordered to get ready for the next session of post pounding. We’ll use this dirt to construct the exit and entrance ramps this week as well as support the guardrail posts. Thank you to Chad at Farrell Landscaping for being able to deliver when we needed it.

Please keep an eye here for updates. Weather dependent we are hoping to wrap up pounding in the posts this weekend. When the truck from Pavilion Drainage is coming we’ll need another good crew to help out. I’ll post details here when we know when that will be. When you plan to come out, please keep the following in mind: Dress for the weather – It is still expected to be cold. Boots, gloves and lots of layers are a must. We will have a propane heater fired up in the garage to get warm by, as well as a kerosene heater in the office trailer.

When the truck is with us again we will use the system that we developed the last time that worked well. We are setting posts and the top rail of guardrail as we go. We plan to continue on until the first course is complete around the perimeter of the speedway. Each piece of guardrail weighs roughly 80 pounds. If we can get several teams of people to do the work it will help us to keep going at a good pace. Last time it worked so well, because we had a lot of people lending a hand. If we have even more people and tools the second and third courses could go up right behind the first.

Tools needed: If you have an impact gun, bring it! Got a grinder – Bring that too! We will also need 1-1/4 and 15/16 sockets and wrenches.

We could also use the help of someone to bring food for the troops. We are hoping to continue to have a decent turnout from our membership each weekend. The crew will be working up an appetite out in the elements. This portion of the project is hard physical work. A warm meal, hot chocolate delivery etc. would be a great help. Even if you can’t deliver it personally but are willing to cover the cost that would be greatly appreciated. Please contact me if you’d be able to help with this. Thank you again to all that have been helping however they can. I continue to be proud to be a member of this club, and I hope that you are too.